What’s more, Declan will be updating his list regularly throughout the year, thus providing a snapshot of one year of production in the long history of Irish Crime Fiction in general. But, too, in the considerably shorter history of Irish Noir, a publishing phenomenon, which only started 20 years ago. Thus, this is also an occasion to reflect on the maturity gained by Irish Noir and the generation which brought it to the world. That Declan Burke is one of them makes it of course all the more interesting.